Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 18

Okay, so, we know that New York's congestion pricing in lower Manhattan is doing exactly what it's supposed to do . It has reduced traffic congestion and average drive times, improved air quality, increased public transit ridership, and continues to generate lots of money for the city.

Because of this, a majority of New Yorkers now say they want congestion pricing to continue, despite many vehemently objecting to it before its enactment. It is, in fact, a car-friendly policy. It makes driving faster and easier by reducing congestion.

But here's another way to look at its effects. A recent study by the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health (in partnership with the Yale School of Public Health) found that, at the highest level, the program is also helping road safety. Car crashes have declined since the program began.

But this is for overall crashes. Interestingly enough, the results are less obvious when looking specifically at injury and fatal crashes. One possible explanation for this is that congestion pricing is, you know, working. Cars are able to drive faster! And since I would imagine that vehicle speed is correlated with injury severity, this makes sense.

So, congestion pricing won't solve all of your city-building problems. It will, however, solve a great number of them. Which city will be bold enough to step up next?

---

Cover photo by Stian Skevig on Unsplash

Now that One Delisle is nearing its final height, the team hired Jacob Côté Photography to go out and capture some progress photos of the site. If you'd like to take a look, they're posted over on Globizen's blog journal . My absolute favourite is the twilight-hour shot with the light blue sky and view toward downtown and the lake. It's the kind of shot that reminds me why I love Toronto.

In other news, the structural backup wall is now underway along the Yonge Street retail frontage. This structure will allow for the reinstatement of the Art Deco facade that was dismantled, catalogued, and stored off-site since the start of construction. Following this, the remainder of the ground floor will be clad in curtain wall (pictured below).

The structural steel for the top of the building, or what we internally call the "architectural crown," was also recently delivered to site. This structure will frame a two-storey volume at the top of the building, conceal the mechanical penthouse, and serve as the building's last important architectural move. Watch for it this summer.

Lastly, we welcomed a select number of brokers to site this week to tour our recently completed model suites. If you have clients you'd like to bring to site or if you yourself are interested, I would encourage you to reach out to the team to book a private site tour. Email sales@onedelisle.com or phone 416-551-4520.

Aziz Sunderji of Home Economics has come up with an interesting way of measuring luxury home sales . He starts by identifying the top-decile price in 2019 for a collection of metro areas (i.e., the top 10% of all home sales in a given market).

This means that if the top 10% of homes in a city sold for $1 million or more, then $1 million is the threshold for a home to be considered "luxury."

But to prevent general market inflation from skewing things over time, he then adjusts this luxury threshold according to how the entire market performed. For instance, if average home prices have increased by 30% since 2019, then the luxury threshold also increases by 30%. In our example, it is now $1.3 million.

Now what?

By definition, in 2019, exactly 10% of sales in a given market were deemed to be luxury. But because the luxury threshold moves in tandem with the general market, Aziz is then able to see if the luxury segment grew or shrank in a particular market.

If, for example, only 4% of home sales are now above the new trended luxury benchmark, well then this indicates a shift toward affordability, as opposed to luxury. To be considered luxury today, a home's value has to have grown faster than the average home in that market.

The result is the above chart, which shows three luxury outliers, and two in particular: San Jose and Miami. This illustrates that so-called "K-shaped" economy.

---

Cover photo by Charlie Lederer on Unsplash

Charts from Home Economics